Emerson Knight is introverted, eccentric, and has little to no sense of social etiquette. Good thing he’s also brilliant, rich, and (some people might say) handsome, or he’d probably be homeless. Riley Moon has just graduated from Harvard Business and Harvard Law. Her aggressive Texas spitfire attitude has helped her land her dream job as a junior analyst with mega-bank Blane-Grunwald. At least Riley Moon thought it was her dream job, until she is given her first assignment: babysitting Emerson Knight.

What starts off as an inquiry about missing bank funds in the Knight account leads to inquiries about a missing man, missing gold, and a life-and-death race across the country. Through the streets of Washington, D.C., and down into the underground vault of the Federal Reserve in New York City, an evil plan is exposed. A plan so sinister that only a megalomaniac could think it up, and only the unlikely duo of the irrepressibly charming Emerson Knight and the tenacious Riley Moon can stop it.

Janet Evanovich can be hit and miss for me. I’m not sure which category Curious Minds falls into. I like Knight and Moon. He is over the top eccentric, but cute and funny. Moon follows the rules, usually, but ends of having to go along with Knight. They are a good couple, and the dialogue at times is laugh-out-loud funny, but I’m not quite buying the sparks yet. I think for the pair of them, this was a good first novel. I think I’ll enjoy them in later books, as long as the plot is a bit better.

The whole conspiracy in this one was just over the top. Brothers working together to steal money from the Federal Reserve and more or less control all the world’s economy, I think. The conspiracy reaches into the NSA and the Supreme Court. Maybe something like that could happen, but it stretched believability for me. It’s just too big for the wacko and side kick to deal with in a week. On the other hand, it is a quick read with plenty of twists and turns.

Curious Minds is definitely a light, summer kind of read. Parts are amusing, but it’s not as good as others I’ve read by the authors.

About Janet Evanovich

Janet Evanovich is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Stephanie Plum series, the Lizzy and Diesel series, twelve romance novels, the Alexandra Barnaby novels and Trouble Maker graphic novel, and How I Write: Secrets of a Bestselling Author, as well as the Fox and O’Hare series with co-author Lee Goldberg.

About Phoef Sutton

Phoef Sutton is a writer, producer, and novelist who has written for shows such as Cheers, News Radio, and Boston Legal. Sutton is also the winner of two Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe, and a Peabody Award.